Crytek’s cancelled survival shooter Redemption detailed

Remember Redemption? The cancelled Crytek project described as The Last of Us meets Crysis 2 has finally been detailed – and may yet see the light of day.

In a feature on Polygon, Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli said he shelved the project personally, even though it had been successfully signed to EA.

The game’s ambition was to deliver a meaningful emotional connection, and was inspired by an experience Yerli had of being unable to find his niece.

A third-person shooter, Redemption had players protecting a ten year old girl named Jelena. She could be ordered to hide, but would not be safe from dogs, for example, leaving the player with little choice but to fight to protect her.

One of the key gameplay features was a button dedicated to looking at Jelena, zooming in on her face to check if she was okay; players could also call out her name to find her.

Unfortunately, after a couple of years of work, testers didn’t like the game, saying Jelena was annoying, and that they wanted to shoot her, or just get on with shooting enemies instead of fussing over her.

“At that point we knew – or I knew – this [was a] project we could not pull off yet,” Yerli said. “We don’t have the technology and the capabilities here. Not just the company, but the industry as a whole.”

Interestingly, Yerli said he expects the project to be back one day in some form.

Redemption was first outed in July 2011, but it wasn’t until August 2012, after its cancellation, that some artwork showed up. They’re well worth a look now that BioShock Infinite and The Last of Us has convinced us all that AI companions aren’t so bad after all.